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Breaking Changes in SciChart.js v5.x from v4.x

Default native font has been change from Arial to Arimo​

If you are using default native font, you will notice some small changes.

If there are places where you are using Arial font explicitly you may want to set SciChartDefaults.autoFontName = 'Arial' in order to pick up the new default font. Another options would be loading Arial font from file or disabling native text.

Read more on font resolution here.

Fallback to WebGL 1 has been removed, SciChart.js v5 is now WebGL 2 only​

In SciChart.js v4 we noticed that the WebGL 1 fallback was either broken or not fully implemented. This, and for performance reasons, plus the ability to support future graphics APIs, we have decided to remove the WebGL 1 fallback making SciChart.js v5+ supports WebGL 2 only. Some FAQs are included below:

Q: Will this affect my apps?

Probably not. Since the WebGL 1 fallback was broken in SciChart.js v4, and we had zero bug reports, we don’t believe anyone was actually using it! Also, browser support for WebGL 2 has improved a lot in recent years and even the most basic integrated graphics chips support WebGL 2.

WebGL 2 is supported on:

  • Any Chrome version later than 56 (2017)
  • Edge later than version 79 (2020)
  • Safari (macOS and iOS) later than version 15 (2021)
  • Firefox later than version 51 (2017)
  • Opera later than version 43 (2017)

Q: What about combability on browsers / systems without a GPU?

If you don’t have a GPU at all, SciChart.js can still run. Google Chrome and Chromium based browsers feature SwiftShader, a fast, software renderer for WebGL.

SIMD support introduced in v5 requires copying nosimd wasm files for fallback support​

Webpack config needs to be updated to include scichart2d-nosimd.wasm and scichart3d-nosimd.wasm files.

Webpack config example

const config: Configuration = {
    entry: "./src/index.tsx",
    mode: "production",
    ...
    plugins: [
        ...
        new CopyPlugin({
            patterns: [
                { from: "src/static/", to: "" },
                { from: "../src/_wasm/scichart2d.wasm", to: "" },
                { from: "../src/_wasm/scichart2d-nosimd.wasm", to: "" },
                { from: "../src/_wasm/scichart3d.wasm", to: "" },
                { from: "../src/_wasm/scichart3d-nosimd.wasm", to: "" }
            ]
        })
    ]
};

SIMD settings

SciChartDefaults.useWasmSimd defines how WebAssembly SIMD should be used by SciChart. The default behavior is Auto. The list of options:

  • Always Always use SIMD-enabled binaries (you must serve scichart2d.wasm, scichart3d.wasm)
  • Never Never use SIMD, always use fallback binaries (you must serve scichart2d-nosimd.wasm, scichart3d-nosimd.wasm)
  • Auto Automatically detect SIMD support and choose appropriate binary (you must serve both variants)

DataLabelState.xValues yValues yFinalValues and PolarColumnDataLabelState.x1Values​

The type for DataLabelState.xValues, DataLabelState.yValues, DataLabelState.xValues and PolarColumnDataLabelState.x1Values has been changed from SCRTDoubleVector to Float64Array, therefore this code needs to be updated

Before

dataLabelState.xValues.get(i)

After

dataLabelState.xValues[i]

Acceptance of Float64Array on UniformGridDataSeries3D, UniformHeatmapDataSeries, XyzDataSeries3D may cause compile errors in Typescript​

Svg-only render and tooltip changes may cause some annotation synchronisation code needs to move from preRender to layoutMeasured.​

If you have code that subscribes to preRender in which you use the position of an annotation managed by Rollover, Cursor or VerticalSlice modifier, subscribe to layoutMeasured instead.